In the days heading into a home game against Huddersfield Town, Argyle were top of Sky Bet League One.
A week later, heading to Cambridge United, two defeats in a week have rather soured the good feeling. It is not just that Argyle have lost two in a row; the 2-0 loss at home to Huddersfield, then 3-0 at Stevenage three days later, involved Argyle being second best to their opponents.
Head Coach Tom Cleverley is looking not only for an uptick in results, but of the competitive levels of his squad.
Speaking to Argyle TV, he said: “Being a head coach, you understand that at some point these moments are going to come. It's never plain sailing. You're always going to have to put a couple of fires out, find solutions for big problems. That's part and parcel of what I do.
“[It has been] a disappointing five days for us. It is football in a nutshell, how five days ago we would sit on top of the league and then fast forward to today, we've got some problems to find solutions for.
“We've not been good enough at the basics. That's where you've got to start. We've not won enough duels, enough second balls, run hard enough. That's for sure where we'll start trying to solve the issues.
“I've complete faith in the players that we put out there on Saturday. We've overcome problems before, found solutions with flying colours, and I'm sure we'll do the same again.
“We have to be honest with ourselves; that's the first port of call, that we're completely honest at what the problems are, take accountability as individuals and then as a team. Then it's my job to offer complete clarity on how we fix things.
“We've always managed to overcome these issues. At the minute, we're too open at the start of games. We've conceded the first goal in our last four. That's an issue. We've not competed well enough. That's been another issue.
“That's a real small sample set. If you ask Orient or Blackpool ‘what’s an Argyle team?’ they'd say: ‘they compete well’. To judge the players, or tag them soft, that's completely not true.
“It's been two performances that are completely against the grain when it comes to us competing and doing the fundamentals.
“[I have] full faith in the players and the staff to make sure that we overcome these problems that are part and parcel of management.
“Our first port of call is to beat last year's points tally. 73 points - can we better that this year? That's a really realistic target for us, and we're six points ahead of that curve after 12 games.
“We're desperate to prove that the last two games have been a bump in the road and it's not something that is a consistent lack of confidence and form, it's just a bump in the road.”
After a challenging week, a trip to Cambridge is far from ideal. Neil Harris' team, having been promoted last season, have adapted superbly to life in Sky Bet League One. In 11 games, they have lost just once, winning five and drawing five.
“They're going to put it on us,” said Cleverley. “We have to navigate through that and put it on them as much as we know we can as well. I think it'll be an entertaining game. It'll be two really intense teams.
“They get good numbers in the box. They've got a couple of good technicians in that.
“They're not just riding the promotion wave. They're a really effective football team and we’ll have to roll our sleeves up, stick our chests out and compete, because at the minute we're in a moment where we're facing top team after top team.
“After next weekend, we'll have faced all the current top six around us and none of the current bottom five. That is how the fixture list presented itself. It's a tough, tough period and we have to show a better version of ourselves than we have in the last two.”
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You can watch Tom Cleverley's Cambridge United preview on Argyle TV, in full, here.
